TOPIC:QuestionEarned Value for Partially Complete Work

In the Prepcast, Cornelius give the example of construction of houses. At the end of month 3 2 houses are complete but the third house is part-built. According to Cornelius, whatever "earned value" on the incomplete house is to be ignored. However, in Rita Mulcahy's Prepbook, there's an example of a job that is 75% done and 75% of its planned value was used. Which way for the exam?

On an unrelated matter: When calculating the forward pass and backward pass, I have noted, the PMBOK goes with project start date as day 1 but acknowledges that there are other methods for doing it. Rita Mulcahy dwells exclusively on start date as day 0. Question: Can one use either on the exam?

Thank you.

Ronald3635

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Ron Kefa wrote: In the Prepcast, Cornelius give the example of construction of houses. At the end of month 3 2 houses are complete but the third house is part-built. According to Cornelius, whatever "earned value" on the incomplete house is to be ignored. However, in Rita Mulcahy's Prepbook, there's an example of a job that is 75% done and 75% of its planned value was used. Which way for the exam?

This is a matter of how you define your Earned Value parameters. In the example that I gave in Lesson L07.05 of The PM PrepCast, our definition was "Partially completed houses don't count towards earned value" (this was not explained in detail on the slides - potential improvement). But you you could as easily have a a definition which says "partially completed houses DO count toward EV". So it's just a matter of what is agreed upon in your particular project. For the exam you can assume that the question will outline the scenario in such a way that it becomes clear what to do. If not, then the available answers will be phrased in such a way that only one approach leads to a correct answer.

Ron Kefa wrote: On an unrelated matter: When calculating the forward pass and backward pass, I have noted, the PMBOK goes with project start date as day 1 but acknowledges that there are other methods for doing it. Rita Mulcahy dwells exclusively on start date as day 0. Question: Can one use either on the exam?

This is an ongoing (and going, and going and going, and going....) discussion. You will find dozens of posts and questions about this topic. In a nutshell: It does NOT matter which approach you chose. PMI is "agnostic" and PMP exam questions will be developed in such a way that it does not matter.

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Until Next Time,
Cornelius Fichtner, PMP, CSM
President, OSP International LLC

As Cornelius mentioned, you can use either method when calculating the forward and backward pass. When I was studying for the PMP exam, it was suggested to me to take some time and work these problems both ways for a better understanding, but ultimately I could select the method I was most comfortable with which I did. Best of luck!

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